Franklin County Emergency Responder Workshop

This past Saturday, Arkansas Tech in Ozark was the site of a First Responder Training Workshop hosted by Franklin County Emergency Management. Thirty-four responders from ten area agencies participated. Franklin County agencies included Altus FD, Barnes FD, FC EMS, FC SAR, South Ozark FD, and Pleasant View FD. Responders from Johnson and Sebastian also attended.

According to OEM Senior Deputy Coordinator Melissa Francis, the topics for these workshops are carefully picked. “As we consider risk and hazards in our community, we also check to see if formal training is available to match it from the State Academies or Department of Emergency Management. If there is a situation likely to develop that formal training is not available for, then we develop some local presentation for it. Another approach we use is to take portions of formal classes and scale them to fit our local needs.”

This summer workshop included these topics, Agricultural Chemicals Used in Franklin County presented by Arkansas Agri Extension Agent Jesse Taylor. Electronic Media Relationship presented by KDYNs Marc Dietz, KFSMs Jo Ellison and KHBSs Bret Rains. Searching for the Missing Person—Perimeter and Patrol presented by Franklin County emergency manager Melissa Francis. Shore-based Water Rescue presented by David Sutter from the County SAR Team.